I think a grasp of child psychology probably helped. And a good dose of common sense. Mrs Riches was our matron in Coleridge. I don't know what qualifications she had but she always seemed to me to have a relaxed and pragmatic way of dealing with our various little problems. Her son Graham was in on...

We in the Coleridge houses in the 1950s always knew when the illustrious BW had turned up to visit because he would be standing there at lunch parade chatting with Clarence on the HM's front lawn. But the rest of them knew it only when the band struck up the Dambusters march. He must have got terrib...

Yes, it's an interesting point Charlie that when Hilton was advisor to Cameron one of the first things that the Coalition government did was to devise £26 billion of cuts to public services that they all knew perfectly well was going to impact on the most vulnerable. So much for an education at Chri...

I was using taig in a satirical manner to make a point. I'm not always politically correct and it doesn't worry me too much. As to taking sides, I'm broadly in sympathy with the Catholic cause from a civil rights perspective. I worked with a guy who'd experienced this from the other perspective. He ...

Ages ago I started a thread on the boy Hilto and pointed out his political changes of position over the years. Someone else posted to say that they thought he was a political chameleon. If there's money to be made from broadcasts, magazine articles, etc, he seems to sway with the prevailing wind. He...

Nothing wrong in doing him down Katharine. He's played his part in promoting a referendum which is going to consign our country to third world status next March unless we can find a way of stopping the jump off the cliff before then. It's interesting the way that people like Hilton talk glibly about...

A question never asked is why are there so many children of Anglo origin either in social care or running wild in the streets? In many of these cases the parent appears to be single (nothing wrong with that as such) but often dysfunctional with drink or drug issues. What kind of parents are letting ...

It's funny but perhaps understandable why the Cleggster gets so much flack. After all he was only the junior partner in the coalition. The Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell used to portray him as Cameron's fag at the posh public school. First he was required to shine his master's shoes and make his toa...

Katharine is quite right. What's wrong with a second referendum? The week before the first referendum, when it was thought from the polls that Remain might shade it, Nigel Farrago said that if it was a close call there should be another referendum. Well it was a close call Nigel so where's our secon...

Brilliant turnout in London today for the Remain cause. I still don't think Brexit is going to happen. I believe that if a hard Brexit stares us in the face the markets will go on the attack with a vengeance, savaging the pound, sterling assets and government bond prices. The 13% the pound has lost ...

I think their own women are mostly under curfew aren't they John? That's the trouble, they can't hang out with their own until marriage. But let's not get too race oriented. After all, Husband, Dobbie, Webb, Burr - all Anglo. And Karim the Ugandan Asian. Then this week there was that Bishop characte...

Some very interesting points of view TMF and quite right in my view. As one of the people who tried to locate the CH punishment books years ago and was unable to even establish their original existence, I also wondered at the extensive archives of CH documentation. I think someone at the time refer...